SIGN UPLOG IN
X (Twitter)LinkedInGitHubDiscordYouTube

How to integrate Zoho MCP with CrewAI

Connect CrewAI to Zoho MCP. Convert new leads to contacts in crm, add a note to an existing zoho deal, and more using natural language, with authentication handled for you.

Get started for freeGet a demo
Zoho logoZoho
Oauth2

Zoho is a suite of cloud business apps for CRM, email marketing, and collaboration. It helps teams automate workflows and scale operations effortlessly.

102 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Zoho to CrewAI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Zoho agent that can create and convert leads, track deals, manage contacts and accounts, add notes and events, and search your CRM records through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your CrewAI agent real control over a Zoho account through Composio's Zoho MCP server.

Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

Also integrate Zoho with

Claude CodeClaude CoworkOpenAI Agents SDKClaude Agent SDKMuseCodexKimi CodeOpenClawHermesAtomic AgentCLIGoogle ADKLangChainVercel AI SDKMastra AILlamaIndexPydantic AIAutoGen

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get a Composio API key and configure your Zoho connection
  • Set up CrewAI with an MCP enabled agent
  • Create a Tool Router session or standalone MCP server for Zoho
  • Build a conversational loop where your agent can execute Zoho operations

What is CrewAI?

CrewAI is a powerful framework for building multi-agent AI systems. It provides primitives for defining agents with specific roles, creating tasks, and orchestrating workflows through crews.

Key features include:

  • Agent Roles: Define specialized agents with specific goals and backstories
  • Task Management: Create tasks with clear descriptions and expected outputs
  • Crew Orchestration: Combine agents and tasks into collaborative workflows
  • MCP Integration: Connect to external tools through Model Context Protocol

What is the Zoho MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Zoho MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Zoho account. It provides structured and secure access to your Zoho CRM data, so your agent can create contacts and leads, manage deals, search records, track activities, and draft emails on your behalf.

  • Contact and lead management: Have your agent create contacts and leads, find existing records, and review prospect details in Zoho CRM.
  • Deal and account tracking: Let the agent create and update deals, review sales opportunities, search accounts, and update account details.
  • Tasks, calls, and event coordination: Direct your agent to find tasks, review logged calls, create events, and check upcoming meetings.
  • Notes, emails, and attachments: Instruct your agent to add notes to CRM records, review related emails and attachments, and prepare email drafts.
  • CRM record discovery: Have your agent search across Zoho CRM modules, list available modules, and retrieve related records for added context.

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Composio SDK?

Composio's Composio SDK helps agents find the right tools for a task at runtime. You can plug in multiple toolkits (like Gmail, HubSpot, and GitHub), and the agent will identify the relevant app and action to complete multi-step workflows. This can reduce token usage and improve the reliability of tool calls. Read more here: Getting started with Composio SDK

The tool router generates a secure MCP URL that your agents can access to perform actions.

How the Composio SDK works

The Composio SDK follows a three-phase workflow:

  1. Discovery: Searches for tools matching your task and returns relevant toolkits with their details.
  2. Authentication: Checks for active connections. If missing, creates an auth config and returns a connection URL via Auth Link.
  3. Execution: Executes the action using the authenticated connection.

Step-by-step Guide

Step by step08 STEPS
1

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:
  • Python 3.9 or higher
  • A Composio account and API key
  • A Zoho connection authorized in Composio
  • An OpenAI API key for the CrewAI LLM
  • Basic familiarity with Python
2

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

OpenAI API Key
  • Go to the OpenAI dashboard and create an API key. You'll need credits to use the models, or you can connect to another model provider.
  • Keep the API key safe.
Composio API Key
  • Log in to the Composio dashboard.
  • Navigate to your API settings and generate a new API key.
  • Store this key securely as you'll need it for authentication.
3

Install dependencies

bash
pip install composio crewai crewai-tools[mcp] python-dotenv
What's happening:
  • composio connects your agent to Zoho via MCP
  • crewai provides Agent, Task, Crew, and LLM primitives
  • crewai-tools[mcp] includes MCP helpers
  • python-dotenv loads environment variables from .env
4

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
USER_ID=your_user_id_here
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates with Composio
  • USER_ID scopes the session to your account
  • OPENAI_API_KEY lets CrewAI use your chosen OpenAI model
5

Import dependencies

python
import os
from composio import Composio
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter
import dotenv

dotenv.load_dotenv()

COMPOSIO_API_KEY = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_USER_ID = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID")

if not COMPOSIO_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")
if not COMPOSIO_USER_ID:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set")
What's happening:
  • CrewAI classes define agents and tasks, and run the workflow
  • MCPServerHTTP connects the agent to an MCP endpoint
  • Composio will give you a short lived Zoho MCP URL
6

Create a Composio Tool Router session for Zoho

python
composio_client = Composio(api_key=COMPOSIO_API_KEY)
session = composio_client.create(user_id=COMPOSIO_USER_ID, toolkits=["zoho"])

url = session.mcp.url
What's happening:
  • You create a Zoho only session through Composio
  • Composio returns an MCP HTTP URL that exposes Zoho tools
7

Initialize the MCP Server

python
server_params = {
    "url": url,
    "transport": "streamable-http",
    "headers": {"x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY},
}

with MCPServerAdapter(server_params) as tools:
    agent = Agent(
        role="Search Assistant",
        goal="Help users search the internet effectively",
        backstory="You are a helpful assistant with access to search tools.",
        tools=tools,
        verbose=False,
        max_iter=10,
    )
What's Happening:
  • Server Configuration: The code sets up connection parameters including the MCP server URL, streamable HTTP transport, and Composio API key authentication.
  • MCP Adapter Bridge: MCPServerAdapter acts as a context manager that converts Composio MCP tools into a CrewAI-compatible format.
  • Agent Setup: Creates a CrewAI Agent with a defined role (Search Assistant), goal (help with internet searches), and access to the MCP tools.
  • Configuration Options: The agent includes settings like verbose=False for clean output and max_iter=10 to prevent infinite loops.
  • Dynamic Tool Usage: Once created, the agent automatically accesses all Composio Search tools and decides when to use them based on user queries.
8

Create a CLI Chatloop and define the Crew

python
print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

conversation_context = ""

while True:
    user_input = input("You: ").strip()

    if user_input.lower() in ["exit", "quit", "bye"]:
        print("\nGoodbye!")
        break

    if not user_input:
        continue

    conversation_context += f"\nUser: {user_input}\n"
    print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

    task = Task(
        description=(
            f"Conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
            f"Current request: {user_input}"
        ),
        expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
        agent=agent,
    )

    crew = Crew(agents=[agent], tasks=[task], verbose=False)
    result = crew.kickoff()
    response = str(result)

    conversation_context += f"Agent: {response}\n"
    print(f"Agent: {response}\n")
What's Happening:
  • Interactive CLI Setup: The code creates an infinite loop that continuously prompts for user input and maintains the entire conversation history in a string variable.
  • Input Validation: Empty inputs are ignored to prevent processing blank messages and keep the conversation clean.
  • Context Building: Each user message is appended to the conversation context, which preserves the full dialogue history for better agent responses.
  • Dynamic Task Creation: For every user input, a new Task is created that includes both the full conversation history and the current request as context.
  • Crew Execution: A Crew is instantiated with the agent and task, then kicked off to process the request and generate a response.
  • Response Management: The agent's response is converted to a string, added to the conversation context, and displayed to the user, maintaining conversational continuity.

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Zoho and CrewAI:

python
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew, LLM
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

load_dotenv()

GOOGLE_API_KEY = os.getenv("GOOGLE_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_API_KEY = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_USER_ID = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID")

if not GOOGLE_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("GOOGLE_API_KEY is not set in the environment.")
if not COMPOSIO_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set in the environment.")
if not COMPOSIO_USER_ID:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set in the environment.")

# Initialize Composio and create a session
composio = Composio(api_key=COMPOSIO_API_KEY)
session = composio.create(
    user_id=COMPOSIO_USER_ID,
    toolkits=["zoho"],
)
url = session.mcp.url

# Configure LLM
llm = LLM(
    model="gpt-5",
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"),
)

server_params = {
    "url": url,
    "transport": "streamable-http",
    "headers": {"x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY},
}

with MCPServerAdapter(server_params) as tools:
    agent = Agent(
        role="Search Assistant",
        goal="Help users with internet searches",
        backstory="You are an expert assistant with access to Composio Search tools.",
        tools=tools,
        llm=llm,
        verbose=False,
        max_iter=10,
    )

    print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

    conversation_context = ""

    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()

        if user_input.lower() in ["exit", "quit", "bye"]:
            print("\nGoodbye!")
            break

        if not user_input:
            continue

        conversation_context += f"\nUser: {user_input}\n"
        print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

        task = Task(
            description=(
                f"Conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
                f"Current request: {user_input}"
            ),
            expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
            agent=agent,
        )

        crew = Crew(agents=[agent], tasks=[task], verbose=False)
        result = crew.kickoff()
        response = str(result)

        conversation_context += f"Agent: {response}\n"
        print(f"Agent: {response}\n")

Conclusion

You now have a CrewAI agent connected to Zoho through Composio's Tool Router. The agent can perform Zoho operations through natural language commands.

Next steps:

  • Add role-specific instructions to customize agent behavior
  • Plug in more toolkits for multi-app workflows
  • Chain tasks for complex multi-step operations
TOOLS

Supported Tools

Every Zoho action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Add Tags to Zoho CRM Records

Apply one or more existing tags to up to 500 records in a Zoho CRM module.

Associate Email with Zoho CRM Record

Add an existing sent or received email to a Zoho CRM record's history.

Convert Zoho CRM Lead

Converts a lead into a contact, account, and optionally a deal in Zoho CRM.

Count Zoho CRM Records

Count all records or records matching one filter in a Zoho CRM module.

Create Zoho CRM Automation Task

Create an automation task with typed static, merge, date, or datetime mappings.

Create Contact in Zoho CRM

Creates a new contact record in Zoho CRM.

Create Zoho CRM Custom Fields

Create one to five custom fields in a Zoho CRM module.

Create Zoho CRM Custom View

Create one custom view for a Zoho CRM module.

Create Deal in Zoho CRM

Creates a new deal in Zoho CRM representing a sales opportunity with deal name, stage, amount, and closing date.

Create Email Draft in Zoho CRM

Creates email drafts for a specific record in Zoho CRM.

Create Zoho Event

Creates a new Event record in Zoho CRM.

Create Lead in Zoho CRM

Creates a new lead record in Zoho CRM with the specified details.

Create Note in Zoho CRM

Creates a new note attached to a specific record in Zoho CRM.

Create Zoho CRM Record

Creates new records in a specified module in Zoho CRM.

Create Zoho CRM Tag

Creates a new tag in Zoho CRM for a specific module.

Delete Zoho Account

Deletes an existing account record from Zoho CRM.

Delete Zoho CRM Contact

Deletes a contact from Zoho CRM.

Delete Zoho CRM Deal

Deletes a deal record from Zoho CRM.

Delete Zoho CRM Email Draft

Delete one unsent email draft associated with a Zoho CRM record.

Delete Zoho CRM Event

Move one Zoho CRM Event record to the recycle bin.

Delete Zoho CRM Lead

Move one Zoho CRM Lead record to the recycle bin.

Delete Zoho CRM Note

Move one Zoho CRM note to the recycle bin.

Delete Zoho CRM Records

Move up to 100 records from a Zoho CRM module to the recycle bin.

Delete Zoho CRM Tag

Delete one Zoho CRM tag definition by its tag ID.

Download Zoho CRM Record Attachment

Download one attachment from a Zoho CRM record as a file.

Download Zoho CRM Record Photo

Download the binary profile photo attached to a supported CRM record.

Get Zoho CRM Account

Retrieves a specific Account record from Zoho CRM by its unique identifier.

Get Zoho CRM Assignment Rule

Retrieve one assignment rule and its module-specific configuration.

Get Zoho CRM Automation Task

Retrieve one configured Zoho CRM automation task and its field mappings.

Get Zoho CRM Blueprint

Retrieve one Zoho CRM blueprint and optional configuration details.

Get Call

Retrieves a specific Call record by its unique identifier from Zoho CRM.

Get Zoho CRM Contact

Retrieves a single contact record by ID from Zoho CRM.

Get Zoho CRM Custom Views

List custom views for a Zoho CRM module or inspect one view by ID.

Get Zoho CRM Deal

Retrieve one Zoho CRM Deal by record ID without a field projection.

Get Email Drafts for Zoho CRM Record

Retrieves email drafts associated with a specific record in Zoho CRM.

Get Zoho Event

Retrieves a specific event record from Zoho CRM by its unique identifier.

Get From Addresses

Retrieves the list of from addresses configured for email operations in Zoho CRM.

Get Zoho CRM Kiosk States

List a kiosk's states or retrieve one state and its associated elements.

Get Zoho CRM Layouts

List layouts for a CRM module or retrieve one complete layout definition.

Get Zoho CRM Module Fields Metadata

Retrieves field metadata for a Zoho CRM module including API names, data types, permissions, and configuration details.

Get Zoho CRM Note

Retrieves a single note by its unique identifier from Zoho CRM.

Get Zoho CRM Pipelines

Retrieve pipeline and stage configuration for a Zoho CRM Deals layout.

Get Zoho CRM Product

Retrieve one Zoho CRM Product by record ID.

Get Zoho CRM Profile

Retrieve one Zoho CRM permission profile and its expanded permissions.

Get Zoho CRM Record

Retrieve one record from a standard or custom Zoho CRM module by ID.

Get Zoho CRM Record Email

Retrieve one email associated with a Zoho CRM record, including its body.

Get Zoho CRM Record Emails

Retrieves a page of emails associated with a specific record in Zoho CRM.

Get Zoho CRM Record Timeline

Retrieve chronological field and related-record history for a Zoho CRM record.

Get Zoho CRM Related Lists Metadata

Retrieves related list metadata for a Zoho CRM module to discover correct api_name values.

Get Zoho CRM Related Records

Fetch related-list records (e.

Get Zoho CRM Task

Retrieves a specific task record by its ID from Zoho CRM.

Get Zoho CRM User

Retrieves a Zoho CRM user by ID, including name, email, role, profile, status, and preferences.

Get Zoho CRM Webform

Retrieve one configured Zoho CRM webform by ID.

Get Zoho CRM Workflow Rule

Retrieve one Zoho CRM workflow rule and its complete configuration.

Get Zoho CRM Records

Retrieves records from a specified module in Zoho CRM.

Get Zoho CRM Users

Tool to retrieve users from Zoho CRM.

List Zoho CRM Access Settings

List roles or permission profiles configured in Zoho CRM.

List Zoho CRM Accounts

Retrieves a list of account records from Zoho CRM with pagination and filtering support.

List Zoho CRM Cadences

List Zoho CRM cadence definitions using optional filters.

List Zoho CRM Calls

Retrieves Call activity records from Zoho CRM with pagination support.

List Zoho CRM Connected Workflow Rules

List trigger conditions for a module's rules in a connected workflow.

List Contacts

Retrieves contact records from Zoho CRM with support for pagination, filtering, and sorting.

List Deals

Retrieves a list of deals from Zoho CRM with support for filtering, sorting, and pagination.

List Zoho CRM Events

Lists events (meetings) from Zoho CRM with pagination and filtering support.

List Zoho CRM Functions

List configured Zoho CRM functions and their metadata.

List Zoho CRM Leads

Retrieves lead records from Zoho CRM's Leads module with pagination support.

List Zoho CRM Modules

Lists all available Zoho CRM modules (standard + custom) to reliably select module API names/IDs for operations.

List Zoho CRM Notes

Retrieves one paginated list of notes from Zoho CRM across all modules.

List Attachments for Zoho CRM Record

Tool to list attachment metadata (id, File_Name, Size, Created_Time, etc.

List Zoho CRM Tags

List the tags available for a Zoho CRM module.

List Zoho CRM Tasks

Retrieves tasks from the Tasks module in Zoho CRM with support for filtering, pagination, and sorting.

List Zoho CRM Variables

List Zoho CRM configuration variables and their current values.

List Zoho CRM Workflow Rules

List and filter workflow rules configured in Zoho CRM.

Merge Zoho CRM Leads

Merge duplicate leads into a retained master lead and delete the child leads.

Search Zoho CRM Accounts

Search for Account records within Zoho CRM using server-side queries.

Search Zoho CRM Calls

Search for Call records in Zoho CRM using server-side queries.

Search Zoho CRM Contacts

Search for contacts in Zoho CRM using server-side queries by criteria, email, phone, or keyword.

Search Deals in Zoho CRM

Search for Deal records in Zoho CRM using server-side queries.

Search Events

Search for Events in Zoho CRM using server-side queries.

Search Leads

Search for lead records in Zoho CRM using server-side queries.

Search Notes

Search for notes in Zoho CRM using server-side queries.

Search Zoho CRM Tasks

Search for tasks in Zoho CRM using flexible criteria.

Search Zoho CRM Records

Search for records within a Zoho CRM module using server-side queries.

Update Zoho CRM Account

Updates an existing Account record in Zoho CRM with the specified field values.

Update Zoho CRM Call

Updates existing call records in the Calls module in Zoho CRM.

Update Zoho CRM Custom Fields

Update custom-field definitions; some changes can alter existing record values.

Update Zoho CRM Custom View

Update the configuration of one Zoho CRM custom view.

Update Zoho CRM Deal

Updates an existing deal in Zoho CRM.

Update Zoho CRM Email Draft

Updates an existing email draft associated with a record in Zoho CRM.

Update Zoho CRM Event

Updates existing events in Zoho CRM.

Update Zoho CRM Layout

Update a custom layout's metadata, profile access, sections, or fields.

Update Lead

Updates existing lead records in Zoho CRM.

Update Zoho CRM Note

Updates an existing note in Zoho CRM.

Update Related Records in Zoho CRM

Associates or updates relationships between records across different modules in Zoho CRM.

Update Zoho CRM User

Update a Zoho CRM user's name, email, contact details, locale, time preferences, role, profile, or status by ID.

Update Zoho CRM Webform

Replace one Zoho CRM webform configuration using the V8 path-ID route.

Update Zoho CRM Workflow Rule

Update a Zoho CRM workflow rule's name, description, or activation status by ID.

Update Zoho CRM Record

Updates existing records in a specified module in Zoho CRM.

Upload Attachment to Zoho CRM Record

Tool to upload a file as an Attachment to a specific Zoho CRM record.

Upload Zoho CRM Record Photo

Set or replace the photo on a supported Zoho CRM record.

Upsert Zoho CRM Records

Insert or update up to 100 records using Zoho CRM duplicate matching.

Validate Zoho CRM Credentials

Validates Zoho CRM credentials by retrieving current user information.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Zoho MCP Agent with another framework

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Zoho MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork logo

Claude Cowork

Use Zoho MCP with Claude Cowork

OpenAI Agents SDK logo

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Zoho MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

Use Zoho MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Muse logo

Muse

Use Zoho MCP with Muse

Codex logo

Codex

Use Zoho MCP with Codex

Kimi Code logo

Kimi Code

Use Zoho MCP with Kimi Code

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Zoho MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Zoho MCP with Hermes

Atomic Agent logo

Atomic Agent

Use Zoho MCP with Atomic Agent

CLI logo

CLI

Use Zoho MCP with CLI

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Zoho MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Zoho MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Zoho MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

Use Zoho MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Zoho MCP with LlamaIndex

Pydantic AI logo

Pydantic AI

Use Zoho MCP with Pydantic AI

AutoGen logo

AutoGen

Use Zoho MCP with AutoGen

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Zoho MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Zoho tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Zoho and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. CrewAI fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Zoho tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Zoho scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Zoho data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

Start with Zoho.It takes 30 seconds.

Managed auth, hosted MCP servers, and every Zoho tool your agent needs.Free to start.

Start building